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Miami Heat of America sensation, Bam Adebayo romped back into USA’s National Basketball Association (NBA) action in sterling style, as he contributed in fetching victory for his side away to Masai Ujiri’s Toronto Raptors, megasportsarena.com reports.
Adebayo’s return came on a night several Nigerian-born players got into the spotlight, with Precious Achiuwa and Gab Vincent both fully representing the West African country’s national team, D’Tigers in grand style, while OG Anunoby also got a look in.
It all happened on the night Adebayo and C.J. McCollum made their long-awaited returns from injury on a hectic MLK Day in the NBA, but the game’s highlight was a final rebound that fell into Jimmy Butler’s hands just a moment or two before the final buzzer.
Adebayo started celebrating for two reasons, because he knew Butler had just gotten a triple-double and The Heat had just won with his comeback game, even as Tyler Herro stole the show by netting 23 points.
Nonetheless, there was also a lot to talk about Adebayo, as he scored 14 points in his first game back, after a six-week absence, due to surgery on his thumb and his side held off The Raptors to win 104-99 on Monday night.
The Nigerian-born USA international wore a wrap to protect his repaired thumb, as he went full throttle in what was the first of three Heat vs Raptors fixtures in a span of 16 days, of which the next holds on January 29, following which Miami will visit Toronto on February 1 and April 3.
Adebayo, who played 32 minutes, shot 4 for 12 and grabbed nine rebounds, said afterwards; ”We’re just blessed to have a team like this. Everybody buys in. Everybody wants to compete. And everybody wants to get the job done.”
On his part, Vincent scored 15 points for The Heat, as their top fan and boxing legend, Floyd Mayweather Jnr watched his favourite team storm to 3-5 on Mondays this season, despite being 25-11 on all other days.
The game was expected to be the first time that Heat guard, Kyle Lowry faced The Raptors since leaving Toronto for Miami this past season, after helping his former team win the 2019 NBA title on his way to claiming to the unofficial title of GROAT – Greatest Raptor Of All-Time.
However, Lowry missed the game for personal reasons, but that did not stop thrilling moments in a fixture that saw 22 lead changes and 10 ties in the first 35 minutes, with both teams knotted at 75-75 late in the third.
Herro scored the last five points of the third quarter, then had the first bucket of the fourth to put Miami up by seven, Anunoby made a 3-pointer with 6:57 left to get Toronto within two, but Miami scored the next seven points in a span of 59 seconds.
Among them was a basket by Adebayo, a corner 3 from Max Strus and a driving layup by Caleb Martin for a 98-89 lead, even as Butler finished with 19 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds – the last of those coming as time was expiring, when Fred VanVleet’s 3-point try missed.
It was Butler’s ninth triple-double with Miami, tying LeBron James for the most in team regular-season history, while Chris Boucher scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for Toronto, for who VanVleet finished with 22.
Pascal Siakam added 18 points and 10 assists for The Raptors, Scottie Barnes scored 16 points, Anunoby scored 14 and Achiuwa, a former Heat forward, grabbed 15 rebounds for Toronto.
Siakam scored off a turnover with 1:48 left to get Toronto within 99-96, but PJ Tucker made a corner 3 with 20 seconds left – off Butler’s 10th assist – to help Miami hold on.
Toronto basically used a six-man rotation, with those players getting between 34 and 42 minutes, but the only other Raptor who got minutes was Justin Champagnie, who played 9:07 before leaving with a dislocated finger.
Raptors coach Nick Nurse said: ”We played as tough as we could. ‘I didn’t see anything that was changing. We were battling from start to finish. … That one could have went either way. It was a hell of an effort by our guys.”
Heat coach, Erik Spoelstra, who felt satisfied that his team had pulled into a virtual tie with Chicago Bulls for first in the NBA’s Eastern Conference, posited about Adebayo’s return: ”You can see his energy out there. He makes us different.”
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